How to get more people to read your ad, post, white paper, or book

In his must-read classic, Tested Advertising Methods, John Caples wrote that “how to” in a headline was an effective way to draw readers. He backed the claim with data from split-copy tests.

The book was published in 1932. I didn’t get my hands on it until 1983, so I tried my own split-copy tests. They revealed that “how to” was still powerful.

A fan of what works over what makes for great art, I began using “how to” for my clients whenever it applied. Most went with it and ended up pleased with their results. A few, however, not unlike children who won’t taste a food they think looks yucky, refused even to test it. They were unmoved by—or, I suspect, they didn’t accept—the data.

Why? Because, they said, “how to” was cheesy, unprofessional, old fashioned, a cliché, or some other such meaningless term.

Today I received an e-letter from Weebly.com, the website app used to create this site and blog, listing this month’s five most-read articles. I couldn’t help noticing that the first two words in the headlines of three of them were “how to.” The remaining two were also how-to articles, with headlines that implied as much.So here’s how to get more people to read your ad, post, white paper, or book. When it applies, put “how to,” or something that implies “how to,” in your headline.

Wrong-headed protection

I willingly speak at conventions, association events, colleges, and universities. High schools I tend to avoid. You may be adept at engaging kids during their cool years, but I am not. Notwithstanding, I recently overheard myself accepting an invitation to present at a nearby high school’s career day.

But then this morning’s email brought me this note:

“When we met … we talked about your most recent book on the subject of polygamy. Although, I think the book sounds intriguing, the principal … asked that you not talk about that particular book with our students … I hope you understand our concern.”

I didn’t like being told not to talk about about the popular, funny yet cautionary memoir by former polygamist wife Joanne Hanks (I’m the as-told-to author), yet I saw the principal’s dilemma. Utah is, after all, a state where neighbors sue to stop neighbors from mowing the lawn in a bikini, and consumers sue retailers to stop them from selling T-shirts printed with images of lingerie. Here, even the smallest mention of the book could put her and the school in the middle of a PR hailstorm.

So, in the second paragraph of my reply, I offered the principal an out:

I realize that there are parents who thrive on outrage. Even the most restrained mention risks sparking a backlash that no one needs. No hard feelings if all agree that it would be best for me not to participate after all.

The principal politely accepted the out. I should be happy, right? I didn’t want to speak at the school to begin with. But, on the contrary, I am a bit dismayed. I expressed why in the first paragraph of my above-referenced reply:

I most emphatically do not agree to avoid it. The objective is to talk about careers, and the book figures in mine. Moreover, the book’s underlying mission is to help young women use critical thinking to avoid being manipulated and duped. It is the last thing they should be spared.

Seriously. Polygamist cults are more prevalent in the Salt Lake metro area than most locals know. It is likely that someone from one of those cults is already trying, or soon will try, to recruit kids from that school.

The principal is doing a good job of protecting herself and the school from potential parental backlash. It is potential parental backlash that is protecting students from the wrong thing.

Toward better boasting

I just received the local power utility’s January e-newsletter. It is a study in how not to do an e-newsletter.

The main headline is a flagrantly self-serving and off-putting boast: Your electricity is a good value.

Yet the article, which thanks to the headline most people won’t read, presents good information. With just one kilowatt-hour, you can do four loads of laundry, watch 22 hours of TV, or bake two trays of cookies. And one kilo-watt hour costs just under 11 cents.

If only the writer had come up with a compelling headline, followed by a skillful, accessible presentation of the above information. Then readers could have concluded for themselves, as I eventually did, that electricity is a good value.